Pearl Beach resident wins short film competition

Pearl Beach resident 15-year-old Kat Alexander has won the 2019 Trop Junior short film competition.

Trop Junior is a short film festival for aspiring film makers.

Alexander took out the 2019 festival with her short film Rewire, a Pinocchio-esque story of a female coded robot that rejects patriarchal constructs and breaks free from her hardwiring after being inspired by strong female figures throughout history.

Alexander filmed Rewire over three days across various locations in Sydney.

She said the message of Rewire was for everyone.

"The idea came pretty quickly to me," Alexander said.

"I knew I wanted to do something about how women are expected to behave in a certain way but I had a bit of trouble nailing down the story at first," she said.

She said the goal of her film was bring attention to the constructed ideals of femininity and what it meant to be a woman.

"I really just want people who see Rewire to come away thinking about the way women are constructed into acting and being a certain type of way.

"Even though the film is very fictional, it's not too far off what the world is really like today and I just want people to think about that," she said.

Alexander has been making films for as long as she can remember.

"I started with iMovie and vividly remember making my first real film and submitting it to Trop Junior when I was 10," she said.

Alexander was previously a finalist, having made it into the final rounds of the 2017 competition with her film Love Ella.

Of the win, Alexander said she was incredibly proud.

"I couldn't believe it.

"It was an incredible moment for me and for everyone who helped me with the production of Rewire," she said.

Alexander is now focusing on script writing for her next project.

She's aiming to debut in Tropfest next year and until then will be honing her craft.

As the 2019 Trop Junior winner, Alexander receives a trophy and $1500 in cash, a 12-month cinema pass, a film course voucher, the cost of attending a screen conference in Adelaide, and a Western Sydney University Studio package, valued at $12,500. SOURCE: Media release, 10 Feb 2019 Amy Owen, Cardinal Spin Interview, 21 Feb 2019 Kat Alexander, Pearl Beach Reporter: Dilon Luke